Boxers Ben and Gerard coast to fine wins

Ben gave an aggressive, hard punching performance to force standing counts on Manchester boxer Colin McCauley and won a clear decision.

Gerard Rogerson was in excellent form, standing toe-to-toe with tough Dylan McKenzie from the Phoenix Fire boxing club, bloodying his nose with accurate combinations on his way to a deserved points win.

Scott O’Connor also put on an impressive display against a much more experienced opponent.

Moving his head and firing hard hooks to the head, O’Connor gave as good as he got against the taller Anjad Ali from Middleton, Manchester, who scored with accurate left jabs as he tried to keep the swarming O’Connor off him.

The close decision went to Ali but could have gone either way.

In other bouts, Dan James from Coastal lost on points to Richard Childs from Higherside, Kane Hatfield was defeated by Arun Mohee from Middleton, losing a decision, while brave Jordan Baker was retired by his corner during round two after taking hard shots from Adil Iqbal from Bury, in what was Jordan’s first contest.

John Hoey from Coastal boxed a ‘skills’ or exhibition match with James Geeling from Bury.

During the interval, Manchester trainer Martin Lynch gave a rousing speech saying what a fantastic job Frank Harrington and his team of trainers at Coastal do in keeping kids off the streets, thus reducing crime and anti-social behaviour.

He asked for donations for the West End Road club and received more than £120 in cash which will go towards new equipment.